1938 first issue of Action Comics sells for $2.1 million

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Digital instead of physical content is slowly becoming the norm, and with the disappearance of first editions, collectible items, and the geeks who keep their purchases in mint condition, auctions to sell such items for six figure sums will surely dry up eventually.

We haven’t reached that point yet, and we still have a very rich reserve of physical collectibles to sell. None more so than the famous first issue of Action Comics.

Action Comics #1 was published by DC Comics in June 1938 and is most well-known for including the first ever appearance of Superman. He appeared on pages 1-13 as well as adorning the front cover holding a car above him as the image above shows.

Whenever a comic is sold the most important aspect is its CGC grading. CGC is an independent, impartial comic book grading service, and the higher the grade the more your comic is worth.

To give you some idea of how collectible and therefore expensive Action Comics #1 is, copies of the issue already hold the two top spots for highest amount ever paid for a comic. A CGC grade 8.0 fetched $1 million in 2010, and then a CGC grade 8.5 fetched $1.5 million last year too.

This latest auction, for a copy apparently owned by Nicholas Cage, managed a CGC grade of 9.0. Because of that, it has just set a new record by being bought for $2,161,000. Cage purchased it in 1997 for just $150,000.

The amount may be impressive, but the grading of 9.0 is even more so when you consider the issue was stolen from Cage in 2000. It wasn’t found by police until 2011 when it turned up in a storage locker in the San Fernando Valley.

Check out the Bleeding Cool link below to see what a CGC 9.0 copy of Action Comics #1 one looks like.